A £2m pension pot: NHS chief Sir David Nicholson’s reward for failure

The NHS is still failing patients, its outgoing head Sir David Nicholson has
admitted, as he announced his retirement on a day that leading health
figures issued grave warnings about the safety of accident and emergency
units.

Sir David Nicholson has been forced to correct himslf over evidence he gave to MPs about the 'whistleblower' Gary Walker.Photo: PA

Sir David said it was a matter of “profound regret” that the health service was letting down many sick and elderly people, as he announced his departure with a £2 million pension pot.

Sir David had been under pressure to resign over his part in the Mid Staffordshire Hospital Trust scandal, where up to 1,200 people died needlessly following appalling failings in care between 2005 and 2008. He was in charge of the health authority supervising Stafford hospital for two years before being appointed NHS chief executive in 2007.

The announcement that he will retire next March coincided with warnings that basic NHS services were unsafe. With a bank holiday weekend approaching, Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, told the Commons that A&E services could no longer cope at such times, and warned that the whole emergency system would become “unsustainable” without major changes.

Dr Mike Clancy, the president of the College of Emergency Medicine, warned that patients were dying in A&E units because of “substantial overcrowding”. Dr Patrick Cadigan, the registrar of the Royal College of Physicians, added that patients had been left with no choice but to turn up at casualty departments, because they were one of the few parts of the NHS open at evenings and weekends. “Patients will go where the lights are on and, in many of the alternatives, the lights are not on after five o’clock in the evening and at weekends,” he said.

Senior NHS managers claimed that the pressures on A&E were bringing the health service “closer and closer to the cliff edge”.

Sir David, 57, who earns £290,000 a year including performance bonuses and “benefits in kind”, has also been criticised over his expenses claims, with almost £50,000 claimed during 2011-12 in travel expenses. Last weekend it emerged that civil servants had questioned his reliance on first-class travel for routine journeys.

Following changes to health service structures, last month he became chief executive of NHS England, a new arms-length body responsible for services. He said that he will take retirement next March, or sooner if a successor is in place.

Julie Bailey, who set up the campaign group Cure the NHS after her mother Bella died in horrific conditions at Stafford hospital in 2007, described the announcement that Sir David was standing down as “fantastic news”.

“This is the start of the cure for the NHS,” she said. “We can start to look to the future now. He was part of the problem, not part of the solution. We now need a leader who will galvanise and inspire the front line, not bully them.” Others were “absolutely sickened” that he was leaving on his own terms, with a pension that will pay a six-figure annual sum for life.

Charlotte Leslie, a Conservative MP, said it was a “terrible insult” to the families of Mid Staffs victims and “a terrible indictment of our political system that he has not already been fired”. She added: “It is an even worse indictment that in an era where we talk about accountability, he should walk away to an enormous pension, funded by the public.”

In his resignation letter, Sir David wrote: “Whilst I believe we have made significant progress together under my leadership, recent events continue to show that on occasion the NHS can still sometimes fail patients, their families and carers. This continues to be a matter of profound regret to me but please know that on a daily basis I continue, and will always continue, to be inspired and moved by the passion that those who work in the NHS continue to show.”

The wording of the letter, sent to the chairman of NHS England and obtained by Health Service Journal, suggests it may have been drafted some time ago.

It says: “In getting ourselves ready for the 1 April 2013 we should take great pride in how the GP-led commissioning groups are now taking forward the quality agenda that I established with [the former health minister] Lord Darzi.”

He also appears to take a swipe at Coalition changes, writing: “Whatever the rights and wrongs of the wider reforms, the creation of a national organisation with the independence and resources to act in the interests of patients remains a prize worth fighting for and even in retirement I will continue to be the staunchest advocate of the NHS.”